So what are the popular games that just don't connect with you, despite being within your interest zone?
Every so often, I find myself circling around the Halo franchise. I'm a long-time fan of the FPS genre and there's this part of me that wants to experience (love or hate) every major release. And Halo being such a huge title in the genre is this constant figure of fascination, despite my not being a fan of the first game. It's by no means a bad game, but I just couldn't connect with it.
So today I'm checking out some YouTube walkthrough videos of ODST and Reach desperately trying to find something to hang my hat on. And I just find myself picking it apart.
Like how strange it is to see someone pulling out the pistol during a major firefight. How doubly strange it is that the thing can zoom without their being any sort of scope on it. Unrealistic weapons aren't a big deal with me, but it just seems so at odds with how seriously the NPCs are acting.
Or the story. Looking past the flat dialogue of Noble Squad, I find myself unable to connect with characters wearing full body armor. Certainly logical in a war zone (unlike the Helmets Are For Pussies attitude of Gears Of War), but logic goes flying out the window when I notice that they're dressed up in the colors of the rainbow, which kind of goes against the whole low visibility most soldiers prefer when folks are shooting bullets at them. Same thing I think when I see the light-up counter on the back of the assault rifle.
Or those little wacky aliens that seem to run around in panic... even when you're getting your ass kicked. Guy's totally got the drop on you, but him and his friends decide that running around in circles is the better part of valour. I just want to pull out Bulletstorm's Flail Gun, wrap an explosive around them, then kick them at something... but the only option I have is the standard serious shooting ones.
Halo just seems to exist in this weird zone between unrealistic shooters (ala Duke, Bulletstorm, or Gears) and more realistic fare (Call Of Duty). While I enjoy games on both sides of the divide and almost any element in Halo I could thoroughly enjoy... it's just how Halo combines all these things that just completely fails to engage me.
Musical score is really good though. And obviously a very polished game (the floaty jumps do irritate me for some reason). I can certainly see why people enjoy it, but it's weird how it consistently fails to hit any of my buttons.
Every so often, I find myself circling around the Halo franchise. I'm a long-time fan of the FPS genre and there's this part of me that wants to experience (love or hate) every major release. And Halo being such a huge title in the genre is this constant figure of fascination, despite my not being a fan of the first game. It's by no means a bad game, but I just couldn't connect with it.
So today I'm checking out some YouTube walkthrough videos of ODST and Reach desperately trying to find something to hang my hat on. And I just find myself picking it apart.
Like how strange it is to see someone pulling out the pistol during a major firefight. How doubly strange it is that the thing can zoom without their being any sort of scope on it. Unrealistic weapons aren't a big deal with me, but it just seems so at odds with how seriously the NPCs are acting.
Or the story. Looking past the flat dialogue of Noble Squad, I find myself unable to connect with characters wearing full body armor. Certainly logical in a war zone (unlike the Helmets Are For Pussies attitude of Gears Of War), but logic goes flying out the window when I notice that they're dressed up in the colors of the rainbow, which kind of goes against the whole low visibility most soldiers prefer when folks are shooting bullets at them. Same thing I think when I see the light-up counter on the back of the assault rifle.
Or those little wacky aliens that seem to run around in panic... even when you're getting your ass kicked. Guy's totally got the drop on you, but him and his friends decide that running around in circles is the better part of valour. I just want to pull out Bulletstorm's Flail Gun, wrap an explosive around them, then kick them at something... but the only option I have is the standard serious shooting ones.
Halo just seems to exist in this weird zone between unrealistic shooters (ala Duke, Bulletstorm, or Gears) and more realistic fare (Call Of Duty). While I enjoy games on both sides of the divide and almost any element in Halo I could thoroughly enjoy... it's just how Halo combines all these things that just completely fails to engage me.
Musical score is really good though. And obviously a very polished game (the floaty jumps do irritate me for some reason). I can certainly see why people enjoy it, but it's weird how it consistently fails to hit any of my buttons.
I went into L4D thinking that I'd hate it (because I usually hate games that are purely 'shoot 'em ups' but I had a lot of fun with it. 
